Category:

London

Nick Nasev

20 years since 7.7 in London

Where did those 20 years go? 

Today is the 20th anniversary of the 7.7 bombings, a series of terrorist attacks that hit London's public transport lifeline, the Tube, killing 52 and injuring 770 innocent, average Londoners and visitors. A horrible day for London, especially as the people killed had nothing to do with the world's fundamental problems.

Every Londoner has their own story of what happened to them on that fateful day, so primarily for the sake of keeping a record of what happened as memory of the day withers away, here's mine.

London's lifeline, the Underground, i.e. the Tube

At the time, I was living in Leytonstone in the eastern end of London and worked in a subtitling company near Holborn. My commute was usually around 30 minutes door-to-door, thanks to the zippy Central Line. I also had a fortunate workday of 11 am to 7 pm, so I usually would avoid the heavy crowds of rush hour (7:30-8:30 am).

The day before London had been awarded hosting the 2012 Olympics. Having experienced the joy of the 2000 Olympics in Australia, this was quite a big victory for the city. We honestly thought that good things were on their way. So the city was on a high.

Having a late start time meant that most mornings I could fit in going to a gym nearby to work. And that was the plan for 7 July in that I would leave home at around 8:30 am. But at the last minute I decided that I'd skip the gym that morning, but I'd still pop into work a little earlier than usual.

Now, I should point out that I wouldn't watch morning TV or go onto the internet to check the news (this was before smartphones), so I was blissfully unaware of what was happening a few kilometres away.

Around 9:30 am I decided to head off. A couple of minutes, around the corner, I had Leytonstone Tube Station in eyesight, but there were giant crowds of people milling outside. "No, not again" I immediately thought to myself. Two days earlier I had been greeted with this exact same scene and at around the same time of the day. What had happened then was a train had been stuck at Marble Arch, effectively bringing the whole Central Line to a halt. I assumed that the same thing occurred then. It is, after all, the London Tube. Things happen. So without second thought, my trusted Plan B for getting into town came into immediate effect. That involved walking for about 10 minutes to Leytonstone High Street station for the "Hopper" line (as it was locally known affectionally), i.e. the Barking-Gospel Oak train (now the Suffragette Line) to take me to Blackhorse Road station so as to change to the Victoria line into central London. If the times are right, it can be done very quickly. Lucky for me, a train was about to arrive as soon as I arrived at the station.

All was going well and the general mood was that it was your average day in London. It was now 10 am, so I had plenty of time to get to work. The train made it two stations to Walthamstow Queens Road... and... that's where we were held. Waiting... waiting... waiting. Yes, we just sat there for what seemed a long time. Normally there would be some sort of announcement but there was none. After a few minutes of suspense that felt like hours, I saw the train engineers on the platform. That wasn't a good sign as I had never seen that before. They quickly reboarded the train, soon after which the long-awaited announcement was made to explain why we were not moving – a major incident had occurred at Liverpool Street, which most likely involved fatalities. Yipes! What had happened?

Instincts came into play and so the first thing I thought is that I better inform my parents in Australia that I'm OK. I know what's it like to hear news about some major event happening on the other side of the world. With the dramatic beat-up that comes with reporting, it's only natural that people will think the worst. Hey, I had been in Canada when 9/11 occurred, but it didn't occur to Aussies that being Vancouver, thousands of kilometres from New York on the other side of North America, would make me not directly affected of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers (it did affect my flights to London a week later though). So the reassuring text message was sent to mother and father. That was a relief, and good timing, as things turned out.

Despite the extraordinary circumstances that were unfolding at the time, I and most of the Londoners around me were quite calm. For many of them, the IRA bombing campaigns of the 1980s and 1990s, when whole sections of central London would suddenly be closed due to a suspicious item in a rubbish bin (that's why there weren't bins for years in central London) was a recent yet regular occurrence. So of course, it had to be then when my second cousin Vasko called me from Italy. Vasko, let's just say, is a larger-than-life character, one for the hyperbole and never for keeping things logical and serene. "Are you alive?" he screamed exasperatedly over the phone. Before I could answer to reassure him that I'm fine, he was barked orders at me. "Get off the train! You're gonna die! Catch a taxi". That last one was a bit rich of him. I asked him whether he'd pay the exorbitant fare for the taxi. So I had to use my diplomatic skills to calm him down, which just didn't happen. In the end, I did that typical Balkan thing of saying 'yes' to everything he said just to shut him up and then I used the excuse that the line was falling out to get off the phone. Phew! Thanks Vasko for nothing!

Immediately after, all network connections were cut off. No-one can call or text (this was the pre-smartphone era) to find out the whereabouts of others, so plenty of uncertainty about.

The train moves to Blackhorse Road station to await further instructions. We're told that all of the tube lines have been cancelled but buses are still running. OK, there goes Plan B, so it'll have to be Plan C then. Provided that the train continues operating, I'll stay on the train all the way to its terminus at Gospel Oak and from there I can get on the C2 bus, which starts from the area, so it won't be packed with Tube refugees, and will take me into central London. Sorted!

All fine. Made it to Gospel Oak, so now to the bus stop to catch that C2 bus. It was obvious at the stop that many who were waiting would have been catching the Northern Line nearby, which was closed like all other lines. Sitting on the uncomfortable bench typical of London bus stops was an old woman, who suddenly fell and was lying on the floor. It appeared that she had a mild stroke. Fortunately, two women also waiting for the bus happened to be nurses and immediately took control of the situation. We asked whether we should call an ambulance, but they rightfully said that all the ambulances would have been sent to terror attack sites, so it would be better to hail a cab. A C2 bus then turned up. I offered to stay and help, but the two nurses said that they'll be fine and graciously thanked me for offering to stay.

It's now approaching 11 am and I'm on the upper deck of a London bus. To have some idea of what's happening, I decided it's best that I listen to BBC London 94.9 (as BBC Radio London was called at the time). Danny Baker was hosting his morning show and his boisterous presentation style and stream of consciousness somewhat reflected the chaotic, confusing and uncertain nature of that day. He was relaying loads of what ended up being exaggerated, rumoured reports of hundreds dead, but when there's an information vacuum, such extremes often fill the void. Word then started coming out that a series of buses had been bombed in Tavistock Square, which was located no far away from where I work. Then more reports that more buses had exploded. But I was on a bus! What should I do? Then Danny Baker made the quip that if anyone is on a bus right now, they should get off. OK, this was serious. It was yet another sudden moment when just before entering the centre of Camden Town, the bus driver announced that the bus could not go further as a 'ring of steel' has been set up restricting vehicles of any type passing across Euston Road into the West End. That's it, I was off the bus.

It's about 11:20 am now and I am still determined to make it to work. Maybe as a coping mechanism to not think too deeply about what had just happened, mixed with a misguided sense of blind loyalty, by this time I can't think of anything else but getting to the office. I'm heading down Bayham Street in Camden and I see that all the pubs are full with people spilling out onto the street. Everyone is in a state of disbelief with a pint in hand. No-one will be working today. Still, I must get to work! I'm thinking also of how will I get home from work, so I'm psyching myself of an epic walk home taking hours. Hey, it's something I've managed before... once.

I pass the corner and see that there are police blocking the streets. Still, I press on. Must get to work! The next street should be fine and they'll let me pass Euston Road, I reassure myself. It's become my mantra. As I'm lost in my thoughts, a complete stranger on the street outside yet another full pub shouts out to me: "Don't bother, mate. It's all closed". I ignore him and push on. I must get to work!

I reach a barrier manned by police who start shouting out 'Sorry, it's all closed'. I try to reason with them saying I need to go to work, but I'm the one who's not reasoning with reality here. It's then when I finally conceded defeat – I'm not going to work. Done!

I try calling work but the phone system is still down. Now I have to work out how to get home. Will I have to do that marathon walk then? That's 13 kilometres minimum there. OK, how about this? Perhaps the train I took to Gospel Oak is still operating. That'll get me home. So I decide to give it a go.

Too scared to catch the bus, it then took me 30 minutes of sprint walking to get me back to Gospel Oak. As I was approaching the station, I was hoping that the train was still running as it appeared all of London's public transport had stopped.

I get to the station and there are railway staff standing out front. Oh no, that's not good. I go straight up to them and ask "is anything running?".
- "No, it's all closed"
- "Even the line to Barking?"
- "Oh no, that's running still. If you run now, you'll just catch it."

Relieved at my superb luck, I sprinted to the platform and just got on the train to Barking in the nick of time. Hooray! I'm heading home and have saved myself a huge walk.

The train trip back was delightfully uneventful. I got off at Leytonstone High Street and sprinted home. I got inside, turned on the TV for the non-stop live coverage on the BBC, called work to say that I couldn't make it (landlines were still operating), and then called Australia to have a more substantial talk with my parents to reassure them that I'm all fine. It was just 12:45 pm by the time I got home, so what a jam-packed three hours I just had.

It turned out that only myself and one other work colleague who didn't make it in that day to work. We were deducted four hours of our accrued extra time to cover, which we thought was rude and unfair, considering it wasn't like we didn't try to get into work, and the whole situation was out of our control. I mean, we just had to deal with a terrorist attack! Still, our other colleagues said that it was better not making it in as it was near impossible to get home that evening anyway.

When the details came out about the exact times and locations of the attacks that day, I calculated that had I been going into the gym that day as planned, I would have been around Liverpool Street Station on the Central Line close to when the first bomb went off at 8:49 am on the Circle Line between Liverpool Street and Aldgate East stations. Good move then that my laziness prevented me going to the gym!

The following day, when going into work on the Central Line, going into the tunnel after Stratford was actually quite frightening. Who's to say that there wouldn't be any more bombings? But all was well in the end. I got off at Holborn and was fine.

A week later at midday, all of central London came out for a minute's silence for the victims of the bombings. Seeing the huge crowds of people streaming out of the office buildings in Holborn surely put it into perspective how many people are in central London during the day. Far more than what I expected. As we were all standing there in silence, there were actually two people, tourists most likely, who continued on walking totally oblivious to what was actually happening. Don't ask me why. I mean, in situations like that, wouldn't you read the room and too stand there? Weird!

London bus bombed in Tavistock Square

Here's the story of an old high school friend of mine, David Moore. He posted this on the 10th anniversary...

"I remember spending 10 minutes trying to get onto the mobile network, to tell my mum and dad in Australia, and my fiancee in Beckenham, that I wasn't on any of the affected tubes and not to worry.

I remember half a dozen good friends all around London all hooking up on email to confirm they were fine; two of them had been on tubes that had been shut down because of the explosions, and one had been at work a block away and heard one of the blasts.

I remember - as always - the uncertainty. The first report was "an electrical fire at a substation," do you remember that? The trickled details through the day; the horrific death of the tourist on the tube and all the confusion around that.

But what I remember most was standing on a nearly-abandoned train platform at Blackfriars at 5.30 that afternoon (we'd been allowed to go home if we wanted, but I stayed and worked; not like anything else was going to happen), waiting for one of the infrequent, unreliable trains running in the aftermath of the explosions, and the fella just up from me was grumbling about "typical bloody trains, right?"

I loved that. World turned upside-down, dozens of deaths, fear, uncertainty. In any other country there'd be people in the streets clenching fists, swearing to "never forget." UK? Grumbling that the trains are late. It was utterly, utterly wonderful."

Much was said at the time that London would never forget what happened on 7 July 2005. However, 20 years after these tragic events, it seems that London would prefer to leave it in the past and forget about it. Fine, we shouldn't dwell but we should commemorate. For when we forget, we risk for events like this to happen again. Plus, we must the memory of the 52 innocent people alive, for they did not deserve in any way to have their lives taken away like this. Respect for those who are no longer with us and let's truly not forget!

The victims of London's 7/7 bombings. A reflection of the true multicultural nature of London

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Nick Nasev smiling

Hi, zdravo, bok, zdravei, g'day! I’m Nick Nasev, an Aussie of Balkan background living in the UK. I’ve been a translator and editor for 20+ years. If you have an interest in languages and all things Balkan, Eastern European, Australian and beyond, along with a dash of corny and irony, then stick with me as I rant about my experiences and stories.

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How do you describe using a payment card to use public transport in Australia? It depends where in Australia you are...

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Australian English: maths or math

Want to get Aussies angry? Ask this mathematical question...

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Australian English: village

Are there villages in Australia? Well, yes, but not how the rest of the world sees it. Find out what makes a village in Oz...

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Australian English: '-or' vs '-our'

"But '-or' spellings are American?" has said many an Aussie. But are they really? Not exactly. Find out how and where there are exceptions to the rule in Australian English.

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Do I translate into Australian?

Many people are shocked when they find out I'm a translator, but their jaws drop even more when I tell them that I also 'translate' into Australian English.

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Australia Day/Invasion Day: the Lamb Ad!

Would you believe that one of the most anticipated events in the lead-up to Australia's national day on 26 January is... an ad about eating lamb! More about the vibe here...

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Anyone up for a 'Krizmoz parti'?

Do you know your Krizmoz from your Bozhik? How some Orthodox Christians in diaspora communities differentiate between the two Christmases.

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Australia and New Zealand do seasons a little differently...

Why wishing your clients, friends and relatives in Australia a happy start to summer on December 21st is not the way to do it...

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Australian English: peanut butter or peanut paste?

The extraordinary story of this tasty Australian regionalism and how it can ignite passions

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Australian English: deffo, devo, defo...

Australian English is famous for its diminutives, i.e. shortened words. Do you know what these ones mean?

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Macquarie Dictionary's 2024 word of the year is...

Australia's prime source for all things Australian English has picked its word for 2024. And this time, I agree!

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Indian and Australian English... the links between them

India and Australia have common bonds that go beyond a passion for cricket. Here are a few words that Indian and Australian English uniquely share...

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What's the name of this famous Australian natural landmark?

One of Australia's most visited tourist sites has two official names, but Aussies almost exclusively use one of them. Do you know which one?

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Australian English: one for the Petrolheads!

Aussies love their cars, so here are a few car-related words for you...

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Can the "world's most accurate translator" do Australian English?

Does DeepL live up to its claim of being "the world's most accurate translator" when it comes to Aussie English? Get ready for some zingers!

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Australian English: is it email and/or e-mail?

Welcome to confusion with "email" in Australia. It's generational...

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Australian English: scull/skull, stinker, flow-on effect, rock up, slippery dip...

Here's the latest round up of some uniquely Aussie words to add to your vocabulary...

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Australian English, Olympics edition: "Boomers croak in medal tilt"

Do you get what is being said here? Unless you're Australian, it's not what you think...

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Australian (Olympics) English: battered sav, hello boys, crazy date, flat bags, goose...

How a comedy routine during the 2000 Sydney Olympics provided Australia with its own, very naughty, gymnastics lexicon!

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Why are Aussies so good at swimming?

To get away from the sharks! Nah, it's more than that.

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Australian English: "We're de factos!"

Many Australians are in "de facto relationships". What are these and how do they differ from marriage?

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Burger King vs Hungry Jacks. Is there a difference?

Is Burger King the drama? How come there's no Burger King in Australia but you can still get a Whopper? A story of how a technicality turned an alternative brand into a part of local Australian identity, and how that was almost usurped.

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Poor Gina...

The lady doth protest too much, methinks. Australia's richest woman, mining magnate Gina Rinehart got more than what she bargained for when she wanted a portrait of her taken down. And how does wine figure into this too?

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Australian etiquette: the Outback Driving Wave

It’s all about being friendly when driving out in “woop woop” (the middle of nowhere) 🤗

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Three everyday words that exist in Australian English only!

Ask what’s most unique about Australian English 🪃, the answers usually are our accent and slang✔️. However, there are also a number of uniquely Australian English words in regular use, even in formal situations, that Australians are surprised to find are not used everywhere else in the English-speaking world (OK, sometimes also in New Zealand🥝, […]

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Watch out, here comes the Aussie version of The Office…

Are you a fan of the cult TV comedy show The Office?🕺And which version: the UK one 🇬🇧? The US one 🇺🇸? The French one 🇫🇷? The Indian one 🇮🇳 or any of the other 13 variants made? 📣 News in is that an Australian 🇦🇺 version of The Office will be hitting our screens […]

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What’s a “bank holiday”? Do Aussies say that too?

Today (Monday), 29 May 2023 is a “bank holiday” in the United Kingdom, our third this month! 📆Now this term “bank holiday” often confuses many people not from the UK or Ireland. Does this mean that it’s a holiday for banks only? 🧐

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Eshays and Adlays: Australia’s answer to London’s Roadmen

Eshays and Adlays: the latest bunch of Pig-Latin-speaking, Nike-wearing young bogans (vilified poor working-class people) to cause massive moral panic in Australia 🇦🇺

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Move over Easter Bunny 🐇 … make way for the Easter Bilby! 🪃

Bunnies are considered cute and loveable… except in Australia 🇦🇺, where they’re a major scourge🤬.

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Hand gestures, i.e. the time when George Bush Senior figuratively told the Aussies where to go…

Have you unwittingly done a hand gesture that meant something completely different in another country? Here’s a true story…

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Calisthenics: body strength training or a performance art for girls?

💪🏼 Calisthenics (US English) or Callisthenics (UK English), one the biggest crazes in fitness worldwide, is a form of strength training using bodyweight exercises and minimal equipment…

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Seachange, Treechange, E-change

Something Australian (but no way uniquely) today…Do you fancy an escape from the rat race and going for a seachange 🌊, treechange 🌳 or e-change 💻?

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I'm like every other woman who works from 7 to 3...

Did Dolly get the words wrong here? No, in ex-Yugoslavia the average work day is a bit different. Find out why here...

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Are you into BCSM?

There once was one "Serbo-Croatian" but now there are four near-identical languages. Can we still use the term "Serbo-Croatian"? Well, it could cost you dearly...

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"Fellow Traveller Zhivkov"

Do you know your deficit from a kupon? Or are you up for joining a brigada? How many aspects and language from communist Bulgaria are still relevant today, but sometimes with a twist.

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Kumpir, the Balkans potato culinary gift to Türkiye

Or is it? On International Day of the Potato, let's look into one of Türkiye's most favourite street foods, and how the Balkans have the Austrians and Germans to thank for the apple, or pear, of the ground.

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24 May: Day of Slavic Literacy and Culture

Today commemorates the saints who brought literacy to the speakers of Slavic languages, and symbolises the shared roots of all Slavic nations and languages.

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Leo, Leon or Lav?

A new pope comes with a new name. But which is the correct one in languages other than English?

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"Filled up 50 years, entered my 51st year and now in my sixth decade"

The way you can refer to age in ex-Yugoslavia is different than in English – they have to make you a year and decade older!

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Can I do Hungarian?

That's quite a list of languages I translate from, but that doesn't mean I translate from every language in Eastern Europe, no matter how similar they may seem even in name...

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Kocani, Kočani or Kochani?

Some Macedonian linguistic pointers

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What's my 'mother language'?

International Mother Language Day and Global Language Advocacy Day are on! So what do I consider to be my 'mother languages' and why one of them is under threat...

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You know Latin, right?

The time when a person working for a translation company that bills itself to clients as an 'expert in languages' thought I knew Latin. Spoiler: I don't. So why did this happen and why does this have a link to Serbian? All revealed here.

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Slovenian, the odd one out

I translate into English from all Southern Slavic languages except one. Sorry, I can't do Slovenian. Here's my apology.

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Anyone up for a 'Krizmoz parti'?

Do you know your Krizmoz from your Bozhik? How some Orthodox Christians in diaspora communities differentiate between the two Christmases.

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Serbo-Croatian? Yes, I still work from it.

3 decades have passed since it officially ceased to exist but I still get requests to translate from Serbo-Croatian. How come?

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I'm now a full member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists of the UK!

Yet another accreditation...

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Hindi/Urdu and Balkan languages... the links between them

There are words that are the same in Hindi and Urdu as in Croatian and Romanian?! How can this be? Find out here...

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Can the "world's most accurate translator" do Australian English?

Does DeepL live up to its claim of being "the world's most accurate translator" when it comes to Aussie English? Get ready for some zingers!

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Why are there so many Turkish words in Balkan languages?

Let's see how Turkish has influenced the languages of the Balkans and further afield. Bujrum!

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False Friend Friday! Time for some Latin-based words

Where the translation gets undone because just because a word looks the same in another language, it doesn't necessarily means the same.

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Луд купон, the “crazy coupon” Bulgarian party

So who’s having a “crazy coupon” this weekend? 🎉 Wait!✋ A crazy coupon?🎟️😲 What’s that?

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Oldtajmer, evergrin, rekorder, golman… the world of Balkan pseudo-anglicisms

Did you hear about the man who collects “old-timers”? 👴🏽 Or that Frank Sinatra has many “evergreens”? 🌲

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Homonyms maketh the sentence…

How do you say in Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin or Serbian this: “Up there, the mountains burn worse”?👉 Gore gore gore gore.

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Naš jezik at Munich Airport

I’m about to fly off to Australia transiting through Munich Airport 🇩🇪 … so I’m preparing myself to be ready to speak in “naš jezik” (“our language”).

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Ramadan or Ramazan?

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan starts today, but how do you call the month? A case of local vs global of different circumstances

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From muezzin to multi-millions. Hašim Kučuk Hoki, the ultimate in Balkan bad boys

This small-town boy from a prestigious Muslim family shook the Yugoslav Neo-Folk music scene in the 1970s. But he had more than dark sunglasses and long hair to keep the Yugoslav showbiz columns busy.

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I'm like every other woman who works from 7 to 3...

Did Dolly get the words wrong here? No, in ex-Yugoslavia the average work day is a bit different. Find out why here...

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Can you tell me the way to Dzordza Vasingtona St.?

Belgrade has new street signs with awkward translations... and people are laughing. Find out why translating street names is not a good idea.

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Bigger is better! The Balkans and 'Gastarbeiter houses'

Like virtual elephants in the room, the empty houses of emigrants throughout the Balkans are testimony to belonging, (no) return, nostalgia, "success"... and inat!

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Kumpir, the Balkans potato culinary gift to Türkiye

Or is it? On International Day of the Potato, let's look into one of Türkiye's most favourite street foods, and how the Balkans have the Austrians and Germans to thank for the apple, or pear, of the ground.

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"We're so tolerant!": Eurovision and the benchmarks of tolerance it (supposedly) sets

Many (western European) Eurovision fans like seeing the contest as being in the forefront of social change and liberal politics. But is Eurovision a reliable benchmark for these?

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Eurovision: 'The voting is all political and just for your neighbour'

That ultimate of Eurovision tropes! But is it really 'political' voting? Not in the Balkans...

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Princes Amongst Men: Journeys with Gypsy Musicians is back!

Garth Cartwright's award-winning book about the talented Roma music stars of the Balkans is getting a re-release!

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May Day and St George's Day in the Balkans

Southeast Europe is clocking out for the next days. Here's why...

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"Filled up 50 years, entered my 51st year and now in my sixth decade"

The way you can refer to age in ex-Yugoslavia is different than in English – they have to make you a year and decade older!

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My special tradition: dying eggs for Easter

If there is anything that I do for Easter, then it's dye eggs. It has a special significance for me that transcends any religious aspect.

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Eat that burek... it could be useful later on

How my experience growing up Balkan in Australia has provided valuable knowledge to others.

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14 February: St Valentine's Day or St Tryphon's Day? Sveti Valentin 💑 ili Sveti Trifun 🍷?

14 February in Bulgaria, Macedonia and Serbia means having to choose between love or wine. How come?

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Slovenian, the odd one out

I translate into English from all Southern Slavic languages except one. Sorry, I can't do Slovenian. Here's my apology.

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January 6 in Southeast Europe: Christmas Eve or Epiphany

Today is a big day in southeast Europe, but depending on the country it's either Christmas Eve or Epiphany. Which ones for which? Find out here...

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My moment of 2024...

There's always one thing each year that stands out in my travels, and this year it was accidently discovering the huge gastarbeiter houses of eastern Serbia

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Professor, Doctor, Docent, Magister... let's get into academic titles!

Some societies take them very seriously, some not so much. Find out more here...

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Why are there so many Turkish words in Balkan languages?

Let's see how Turkish has influenced the languages of the Balkans and further afield. Bujrum!

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Trileche, the not-so-traditional Balkan dish

How thanks to the Albanians, a Latin American cake conquered the Balkans.

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"Can you identify the text here?"

Did you know that people regularly contact me to identify text they can't decipher. That's what happens when I know a number of languages.

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25 years since the death of Bulgarian chalga star Rumyana

How the life and death of a popular chalga singer embodied the nature of post-Communist Bulgaria

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Who's gonna win: Sunderland or Newcastle? Fancy a Democracy Sausage? Or take a ride on the "Bulgarian Train"

Vote-count competitions between rival cities? How a mundane sausage in generic white bread is the epitome of mass democratic participation in Australia. And why a Bulgarian train is not a train. The weird world of election traditions.

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Oldtajmer, evergrin, rekorder, golman… the world of Balkan pseudo-anglicisms

Did you hear about the man who collects “old-timers”? 👴🏽 Or that Frank Sinatra has many “evergreens”? 🌲

Read more

Ramadan or Ramazan?

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan starts today, but how do you call the month? A case of local vs global of different circumstances

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International Women’s Day (IWD). A day of campaigning ♀ … or a day to buy flowers 💐

🪃 In Australia, IWD is a day of campaigning and awareness, elements that are much closer to the day’s original purpose of bringing mainstream attention to issues affecting women.

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Hugging and cheek-kissing in southeast Europe. The does and don’ts

Do you know what to do with hugging and cheek-kissing in southeast Europe? Do you know which countries kiss twice and others three times?

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Out today! Elixir, In the Valley at the End of Time

The latest book that I played a part in its fruition (no, I’m not in it this time), by my dear friend, the award-winning writer Kapka Kassabova, is now available for purchase.

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Eurovision: not serving kant!

Eurovision likes to portray itself as in the forefront of social inclusion and diversity. However, the title of a Maltese song showed that there's only so far this goes.

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Do we really need self-service counters in 'Pirate', me mateys?

Ahoy, me hearties! What may appear as a community service actually serves to undermine the supposed primary purpose of such language provision.

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Child interpreters. Why are we getting them to do an adult's job?

Children who interpret for their family members who do not know the local language are often portrayed as heroes. But what do these children think?

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Hindi/Urdu and Balkan languages... the links between them

There are words that are the same in Hindi and Urdu as in Croatian and Romanian?! How can this be? Find out here...

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"Can you identify the text here?"

Did you know that people regularly contact me to identify text they can't decipher. That's what happens when I know a number of languages.

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Five common myths about raising bilingual children

Surprising as it may be, I was once a child, but one who happened to grow up in a multilingual environment but dominated by English.

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Can you tell me the way to Dzordza Vasingtona St.?

Belgrade has new street signs with awkward translations... and people are laughing. Find out why translating street names is not a good idea.

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How the first Macedonian-English dictionary in Australia was formed

The fascinating story of how the first Macedonian-English dictionary in Australia was formed, and what went in and what went out.

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Leo, Leon or Lav?

A new pope comes with a new name. But which is the correct one in languages other than English?

Read more

"Filled up 50 years, entered my 51st year and now in my sixth decade"

The way you can refer to age in ex-Yugoslavia is different than in English – they have to make you a year and decade older!

Read more

"Vegetative electron microscopy"... a digital fossil

Welcome to the murky world of AI contamination and GIGO

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Can I do Hungarian?

That's quite a list of languages I translate from, but that doesn't mean I translate from every language in Eastern Europe, no matter how similar they may seem even in name...

Read more

You know Latin, right?

The time when a person working for a translation company that bills itself to clients as an 'expert in languages' thought I knew Latin. Spoiler: I don't. So why did this happen and why does this have a link to Serbian? All revealed here.

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February marks my professional translation career anniversary

February 2002 was when I did my first paid translation job... and it ended up on TV! Find out how this came about, as well as its connection to Croatian skier Janica Kostelić and Bulgarian footballer Yordan Letchkov

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Child interpreters. Why are we getting them to do an adult's job?

Children who interpret for their family members who do not know the local language are often portrayed as heroes. But what do these children think?

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How to pass off as a native English speaker when writing?

What's one of the biggest giveaways that a text in English was not written by a native speaker? Find out here with a simple and yet important tip...

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Subtitling is easy, right?

Some notes on how subtitling is not simply plonking words on a screen

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My new personalised stamp!

To add to that professional touch, I can have your documents stamped with my personalised round stamp.

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Professor, Doctor, Docent, Magister... let's get into academic titles!

Some societies take them very seriously, some not so much. Find out more here...

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Serbo-Croatian? Yes, I still work from it.

3 decades have passed since it officially ceased to exist but I still get requests to translate from Serbo-Croatian. How come?

Read more

I'm now a full member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists of the UK!

Yet another accreditation...

Read more

Hindi/Urdu and Balkan languages... the links between them

There are words that are the same in Hindi and Urdu as in Croatian and Romanian?! How can this be? Find out here...

Read more

Can the "world's most accurate translator" do Australian English?

Does DeepL live up to its claim of being "the world's most accurate translator" when it comes to Aussie English? Get ready for some zingers!

Read more

The time US military officials used a computer to predict the outcome of the Vietnam War...

A cautionary tale about how human behaviour overrides data

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International Translation Day and the Dragomans

How the Ottoman Empire granted its translators and interpreters, the Dragomans, with respect and status.

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Meyk lov - not vor

Why you shouldn't trust automated translation on LinkedIn or anywhere else. And are the Macedonians being targeted?

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Any place, any time…

👍The best thing about being a freelance translator is being able to work at any place at any time. 👎The worst thing about being a freelancer translator is being able to work at any place at any time.

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English language translation tips: use of long forms of country names

Republic of Serbia 🇷🇸, Republic of Croatia 🇭🇷, Kingdom of Norway 🇳🇴, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 🇬🇧, Oriental Republic of Uruguay 🇺🇾, Plurinational State of Bolivia 🇧🇴 …

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Are you into BCSM?

There once was one "Serbo-Croatian" but now there are four near-identical languages. Can we still use the term "Serbo-Croatian"? Well, it could cost you dearly...

Read more

Do we really need self-service counters in 'Pirate', me mateys?

Ahoy, me hearties! What may appear as a community service actually serves to undermine the supposed primary purpose of such language provision.

Read more

What's my 'mother language'?

International Mother Language Day and Global Language Advocacy Day are on! So what do I consider to be my 'mother languages' and why one of them is under threat...

Read more

Subtitling is easy, right?

Some notes on how subtitling is not simply plonking words on a screen

Read more

Indian and Australian English... the links between them

India and Australia have common bonds that go beyond a passion for cricket. Here are a few words that Indian and Australian English uniquely share...

Read more

The time US military officials used a computer to predict the outcome of the Vietnam War...

A cautionary tale about how human behaviour overrides data

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"Merci" is how you say "thank you" in which language?

It may come as a surprise but it's not just in French...

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"Can you identify the text here?"

Did you know that people regularly contact me to identify text they can't decipher. That's what happens when I know a number of languages.

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You know that time when Madonna was interviewed by a Hungarian tabloid? Or when translation goes hilariously bad…

We all know how some translations can be so bad that they’re unintentionally hilarious, like the viral examples from Engrish.com...

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Working in IT? What do you call yourself? An IT-ian, a Hitechist…?

Working in IT? 👩🏻‍💻 Would you call yourself an IT-ian, Hitechist or Startupist?

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Watch out for the killer squirrels! It’s “silly season”… or is that “cucumber season”?

Watch out for the killer squirrels! 🐿️ We’re very much in “silly season” right now in the UK 🤪

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Tina Turner… Australian cultural icon!

Did you know that Tina Turner has been one of the biggest contributors to Australian culture? 🦘 Honestly, her impact has been huge! Here’s how…

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You do Montenegrin and Bosnian, right?

Two more language directions have been added to my Institute of Translation and Interpreting profile

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Generic or specific? The issue stopping the free-trade agreement between the EU and Australia

Would you believe that the names of all these famous products are the cause for the deadlock in the free-trade agreement negotiations between the EU 🇪🇺 and Australia 🇦🇺. How come?

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Smoker’s remorse… or how false friends can be deeply expressive

🟰 Words that look the same or similar in two languages but have two, at times radically, different meanings are called “false friends”.

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So what are Fantales?

They are chocolate-covered chewy caramels 🍬 that were often so hard to bite into that they kept many dentists in business 🦷. Nothing particularly unique so far, you might think.

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The personal touch

Translation can often be a very sedentary existence, plugging away in front of a laptop, with little or no face-to-face contact with clients👨🏻‍💻

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“You can find the Doonas in Manchester”

Now this might sound a bit random 🤨 but this is something you’ll hear all the time, in all places… in department stores in Australia 🇦🇺. How come? 🧐

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Cancer and gallows humour: Thank you for the flowers 💐; I hope they die before I do!

What's one constant when it comes to the cancer experience? It's the gallows humour. Yes, it gets very, very dark. Why is this so?

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15 years cancer-free!!!

And I know because of an annual procedure a work colleague advised me to do...

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It's Men's Health Week... and I'm 15 years cancer-free!!!

The story of how I found out by chance that I no longer had cancer

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